Asked if his criticism of the media was akin to calling it "fake news" - a favourite insult of US President Donald Trump - he replied: "I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is when I've spoken to them, they've been surprised to learn about the facts about what Australia has been doing."

He told the UN that Australia would beat its 2020 Kyoto targets and claimed it would also meet its 2030 Paris pledge.

Earlier, Mr Morrison was more bullish, saying Australia "won't just meet our 2030 commitments, I suspect we will hopefully be able to do better than that".

Environment department figures show Australia's emissions have risen since 2014. Under the Paris agreement, all countries are expected to update their pledges to cut emissions at the 2020 climate conference in Glasgow.